annie and her mother were gone by the time i got out of bed around 9am. not sure where they went, since her mother has already seen everything there is to see in boston. maybe they're going to chinatown for some lobsters to celebrate, perhaps also to do some shopping, that's my educated guess.

temperature today wasn't that hot - upper 70's to lower 80's - but the humidity was stifling, so much so that i turned on the air conditioner. a bagel for lunch, then i finally got around to cleaning the aquarium. it took more than an hour - first removing the clumps of string algae, then scrubbing the algae off of the glass, followed by refilling the activated carbon, finally changing the water. while the java ferns seem to be diminishing, the other aquatic plant i have (not sure the name, like an underwater pothos) seems to be thriving. i discovered i now only have 7 tetras.

i spent the rest of the day filling in the backlog of missing blog posts. some will never be filled, especially the older entries. more recent ones are easier because i can still remember some details.

i warmed up the last of my pasta and sauce for dinner while watching the first patriots preseason game against the detroit lions. annie and her mother finally came home around 9:30pm. she said they went to "newbury," which guess meant newbury street. but more than 12 hours? is there really that much to do and see there? maybe the guide book told her mother to check it out. by now her mother really has seen it all.

in less than 36 hours i will once again be roommate free. i hope annie's got everything settled: paid the shipping cost for her boxes, purchased bus tickets for new york city, booked the hotels, researched what they want to do there. she kind of messed up because she can't move into her dorm until the 22nd, but her mother is leaving on the 15th, so she has a week where she's basically homeless.